Review of The Outlaw Josey Wales

The Outlaw Josey Wales is a good film. It is rather slow. It takes it's time to progress from one scene to the next. The film starts out with an action opener. Wales' wife and kid are savagely murdered by Union "Red Legs" soldiers. This starts Josey on his quest for vengeance which is ultimately satisfied when he kills the Union Commander with his own saber. The film is a Western that falls into Clint Eastwood films as a category. More on Clint's Western films later. It was directed and stars Eastwood as Josey Wales. There are several other characters who play the old Indian man who acts as a mentor and comic relief to Josey's serious demeanor. Fletcher is also a decent role for John Vernon. The film was released in 1976 and did quite well at the box office.

Like other Eastwood films; The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Unforgiven, and others the film is driven by the structure of abuse, recovery, and vengeance. Josey Wales is no different. Wales is abused by Union soldiers who kill his wife and son and burn down his house. It all happens within the first ten minutes of the film. Over the next thirty or so minutes Wales goes on a journey to get satisfaction for how he has been wronged. First he joins a Confederate guerilla unit, then goes it alone, then makes allies along his journey, and finally in a big shootout kills of the Union soldiers in pursuit. As the end credits roll, Wales rides off into the sunset.

Clint Eastwood turns in a quality performance. It's what you would expect from a Western with Clint starring. He is invincible. He shoots everyone dead. He is the righteous vigilante out to right wrongs, save the innocent, and stand up to the bad forces of society. In the case of this film it's the Union army who has won the Civil War. The other minor characters are defined by the Civil War. Fletcher who turns out to be an ally of Wales' at the end of the film is a character which creates sympathy for the Southern cause. The other minor character is the old Indian man Chief Dan George. He adds comedy and humanism to a film that sorely needs it with all the violence, shootouts, and brutishness of the other characters.

The film comes off as authentic. There are no errors in costume or cinematography. The settings reflect the period of the time. Yet the film could have been more creative. It is a straight forward film without much risk taken in the presentation of the film. Perhaps that's what Eastwood wanted. The edits of the beginning of the film into Josey's mind as he is taking his revenge add a surrealistic touch to an otherwise dull, realist film. The scene of the boat crossing is very slow. I thought it was boring and poorly written. Instead of showing where Clint and the kid were going we were told. The film really picks up steam with the raid against the pioneers from Kansas. The attempted rape of the white woman kicks up the intensity level. That carries the film into the negotiation scene with Ten Bears and the final shootout with the "red legs" soldiers.

The film has hints of being a great film, but it just doesn't get there. It is nowhere near The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. The dramatic tension never rises to a similar level and the characters are too thin. It's also not as good as Unforgiven. There is no deep psychology behind Wales. Only flashes of the tragedy that has befallen him. And the abuse is rather short lived and mild compared to what Eastwood goes through in his other films. Perhaps it would have been better if he had suffered more directly like in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly or Unforgiven. In those films he is starved or beaten almost to death. In Josey Wales he doesn't endure enough pain to develop a deep sympathy for his character. More sympathy is created for the South rather than Josey Wales.

The message the film conveys is like the message in Unforgiven. Everything is corrupt; authority, society, and human nature. The only righteous way is to take matters into your own hands and settle things through a shootout. It plays on the fears of conservative America. That the Civil War was a mistake and Southern American culture and way of life are under siege and need to be defended to the death. That 's the moral high ground that the hero Josey Wales takes in the film. He is the equalizer, the defender of what is right. And he can not be defeated. Like in Unforgiven where everyone seems to be morally culpable, Eastwood stands on the high ground of morality. He saves the Indian girl from rape, he saves the white settlers from exploitation and slavery, and he finally does what every Southerner wishes they could do; he defeats the Union army. It is these fantasies that are the message of the film.

The film is like Buster Keaton's The General or Gone With the Wind. The cause of the South was a noble one, but it ended in defeat. Like the many films that re-fought the Vietnam War in the 80's this film re-imagines the Civil War where the South had the moral high ground. It ignores the brutality of the Slave system. And misrepresents the Union army and the righteous cause of re-uniting the country and ending slavery.

The Outlaw Josey Wales is a good film. If you liked The Man With No Name trilogy starring Eastwood and directed by Sergio Leone, you will like this film. However one sided or historically biased the film is. Perhaps you like a film where the South has won.